Sorry I’ve been out of touch so much during such and exciting time. I’ve been so busy living life, I haven’t had time to blog about it!

I started in Austin on Sunday. I pulled into a truck stop in Deming, New Mexico that night. Late Monday night I arrived at Touch’s place in San Diego overheating in both the high desert only a few hours after noon, and way up in the steep mountains in the middle of the night. The Metro has been overheating consistently, and several times a day I’ve had to stop to try yet another even-less-likey-to-fix-the problem solution in a desperate attempt to stop spending as much money on antifreeze as I was on gas. I was having to refill most of the radiator every 100 miles or so, even though there wasn’t any obvious leak. Last night, after realizing that 1) driving in stop-and-go traffic during a hot summer day was impossible and 2) I was in LA, I spent about six hours in three different parking lots working on the cooling system and waiting for the heat to die down a bit before attempt the trip north to Alameda. Other than a newly hatched vacuum leak that caused a rough idle, the car behaved itself for the 8 hours it took me to get there, and I was very happy to see my cousin Julie once I arrived. Then shower, then bed. Bed!

At no point anywhere on this trip, through hundreds of miles of Texas, all the way across New Mexico and Arizona, and through at least two deserts, was I *ever* able to use AC, because it makes the car overheat even faster.

So after a great lunch today with Julie and my friend Nick, who just happened to be in the Bay Area, in Oakland, I headed north through rush-hour traffic and one of the most spectacular mountain sunsets I’ve ever seen to arrive at Steve’s place in Ashland, Oregon, where I have been for many jujutsu retreats. It was *very* strange to pull up in the Metro after having *driven* the entire distance, instead of flying into Medford like I usually did.

So between almost 40 hours of driving, over 15 hours of delay for car drama, and the less-than-8-hours-in-three-days of sleep I’ve gotten since leaving, it’s been *very* hard to blog. And since bringing people along for the ride is a big part of why I’m doing this, I’m taking a big Note from the Universe that it’s time to slow down future trips so I *can* stay in touch while I’m out. This time I barely had enough time to even call my mother and let her know I wasn’t dying in the desert somewhere.

Even when I was. 🙂

The plan has always been to find more great West Coast gems to visit, and then expand each of those destinations however much is fun for me and my host, but I’m *really* seeing the wisdom of slowing things down and taking my time. I think I *am* actually going to hit every deadline (maybe a few hours late) I set up for the trip *up* to Portland, but I’m absolutely going to take more time on my way home.

I also evidently left not one but both of my computer power supplies at home, so I’m sending this from my iPad with my bluetooth keyboard. Expect better formatting and more pictures in future posts!